follow lisa is cooking

I have a little problem. I'm addicted to cookbooks, food writing, recipe collecting, and cooking. I have a lot of recipes waiting for me to try them, and ideas from articles, tv, and restaurants often lead to new dishes. I started losing track of what I've done. So now I'm taking photos and writing about what I've prepared—unless it's terrible in which case I forget it ever happened.

subscribe to

subscribe via email

Friday, September 23, 2011

Who can turn down a good challenge? When Slow Food USA announced the $5 Meal Challenge to prove that “slow food shouldn’t cost more than fast food,” I was game. Right away, Shelley made plans to host a potluck and ground rules were set. To keep the total cost of each meal at or below $5, and assuming there would be starters, mains, sides, and desserts brought to the potluck, each serving needed to be $1.25 per person or less for a four course meal. That meant that for a dish intended to serve ten people, the total ingredient cost had to be $12.50 or less. Fortunately for me, I had just received a review copy of Quick-Fix Vegan by Robin Robertson which will be released on October 4th. When I want healthy, affordable, slow food, I turn to local, sustainable, and mostly plant-based dishes, so this book arrived right on time. Every dish in the book from starters to pasta to soups, sandwiches, salads, baked dishes, and desserts, can be on the table quickly. There are also great tips for how to stock your pantry and for preparing dishes in advance and then just baking them right before mealtime. A few of those quick dishes include coconut-curry chickpeas and cauliflower, spicy smoked portobello tacos, Indonesian satay sandwiches with peanut sauce, and ginger-cashew chocolate truffles. For the $5 Meal Challenge, the cajun-spiced dirty rice sounded like a healthy, flavorful dish to easily feed a crowd.

Now, I have to make a confession. This book’s intention is to offer meals that can be made with a minimum of fuss, but in the interest of keeping the cost down, I took a couple of extra steps. I bought organic, dried, red beans and cooked them myself, and I made my own vegetable broth. However, by doing those two steps in advance, actually the preparing the rice dish was quick and easy. I used local onions, bell peppers, and mushrooms, and the other ingredients were all organic, and the total cost per serving came in just a cent or two under $1.25. The classic Cajun trinity of bell pepper, onion, and celery was cooked first and created a base layer of flavor. Garlic, mushrooms, and a Cajun spice blend were added next and allowed to cook. Last, brown rice, red beans, vegetable broth, and salt and pepper were added. The mixture was transferred to a baking dish, and it was baked for about an hour.

Traditional Cajun dirty rice includes sausage and/or chicken giblets in rice cooked with chicken stock. Here, the ‘dirtiness’ came from beans and mushrooms, and the rice was cooked with vegetable broth. When a couple of the omnivore potluck attendees mentioned they wouldn’t have known the dish was vegan if I hadn’t told them, I took that as high praise. The aromatics and Cajun spice mix flavored the rice really well, and this is a dish that just gets better as it sits, so it’s perfectly suited to a potluck.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly oil a three-quart baking dish and set aside. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, and bell pepper. Cover and cook to soften, five minutes. Add the garlic, mushrooms, and Cajun spice blend. Stir to combine and cook until softened, two minutes. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish. Stir in the rice, beans, broth, and salt and pepper to taste. Cover tightly and cook in the oven until the rice is tender, about 50 minutes. Serve hot.

I admit I did not like the name dirty rice at first, but now I've realized I clicked onto it all because of the catchy name... The writeup and the pictures did not disappoint me either. With something as complete a meal as this, I wouldn't mind getting dirty...

Love the idea of a vegan version of dirty rice which has always been too heavy for my taste! Love also how you took the extra steps of making your own broth which makes such a difference in the final taste! Bravo.

Eric loved your dirty rice- of course, he ate it the next day along with the leftover pork belly so he kind of put the kibosh on the vegan part. It was so good it didn't even taste vegan (not to slam vegan food, of course)!

Lisa, This post is inspiring on so many levels. I love that you cooked an inexpensive, healthy and super tasty meal all at the same time. And this kind of make-ahead comfort food is just right! Cheers,Erin

That's quite a challenge, Lisa. But you met it with gusto! I think it's brilliant you made your own veggie broth AND the beans; the flavor couldn't help but be that much better.It's a beautiful dish...healthy, inexpensive and doable.

So much of the world's best cuisines are poor man's cooking - and meant to be cheap, nutritious and healthy. How did we ever move away from that? I love dirty rice and love the addition of beans which really does make it a meal! Great challenge, great dish, Lisa!

OMG, I just made this. It is delicious! I pulsed the mushrooms in the food processor...and went a little too far : ) I ended up with minced button mushrooms. But what a lovely accident...the mushrooms provided an almost buttery flavor and aroma to the dish! Yum! My changes: I cooked this on the stovetop, used leftover frozen (and thawed rice), skipped the oil and used just enough veggie broth to keep everything from sticking to the wok/keep everything moist. Thanks for a great recipe!